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But why not reignite Lita vs Trish? That is still the biggest WWE Women's feud of all time.

For the same reason the majority of fans weren't interested in Lesnar vs Goldberg- part-timers versus part-timers takes time away from the current roster. 2 female legends should not face each other. They should each give some shine to this generation.

For the same reason the majority of fans weren't interested in Lesnar vs Goldberg- part-timers versus part-timers takes time away from the current roster. 2 female legends should not face each other. They should each give some shine to this generation.

But to be fair, Lesnar vs Goldberg was never an all time great feud.

Let's say for instance that the WWE could have had Macho vs Hogan in 2005 or HBK vs the Rock any year from 2011 til present or SCSA vs the Rock one last time?

Lita vs Trish could have been huge with the right build. Then you have the rest of the card to have the new/existing talent shine.

Lita is clearly not as big of value to them. She shouldn't be wrestling from what i've seen from her but more than that, they put her with Mickie cause the match isn't really gonna get build. At least with Alexa, they will have her talk shit... I can't see Mickie being afforded the same promo time

From the looks of it, I don't think that they think Lita is safe to work with. Mickie knows her, her style, is way more experienced, and could get a good match out of her. Looking at the roster, I wouldn't want to see Lita against Sasha or Bayley because someone could die, maybe Asuka, and maybe Becky. But against Mickie you have someone who you know already can work with her.

How do you build Trish vs Lita up when they're not appearing on TV regularly, though? I mean I guess you could say the same about Alexa Vs. Trish and Lita vs. Mickie James, but I don't know.

Simple. Trish was on TV last week b/c the WWE was in Toronto, and all she had to do, instead of having the moment with Elias, was come out to the ring and say something along the lines of:

So the WWE is having an all woman's PPV called evolution, and I'd be damned if I wasn't apart of it, and there is only one person who I want to face at Evolution...Lita. We were the first women to Headline a RAW, and now we should also be the first Women to headline a Woman's PPV."

Maybe that's true, but I don't get it. WWE can have a "Women's Evolution" and take women's wrestling seriously and push that these women are serious athletes and not just eye candy, while still running Saudi Arabia. The two are not mutually exclusive, and revolution doesn't happen over night. Sasha and Alexa had the first women's match in the UAE, something that likely never would have been allowed a decade ago.

If WWE doesn't go, or falls on the sword of women's wrestling, then nothing will ever change. But jeez, the GRR was one of the few (and I think first) times that women and men were allowed to intermingle at a sporting event, was it not? WWE probably pitches it every time, and eventually it's going to get the yes. But it's a very conservative "old world" country, that is never going to reform (or whatever they're trying) if North American companies and entertainment properties shun them until they come around.

It's a chicken and egg scenario. Do you refuse to do business with them until they reform, or do you hope that the impact of what you're doing can help westernize the country and start a reformation?

Maybe that's true, but I don't get it. WWE can have a "Women's Evolution" and take women's wrestling seriously and push that these women are serious athletes and not just eye candy, while still running Saudi Arabia. The two are not mutually exclusive, and revolution doesn't happen over night. Sasha and Alexa had the first women's match in the UAE, something that likely never would have been allowed a decade ago.

Except it was. WWE's claim that Sasha and Alexa were the first to wrestle in the UAE is pretty much a flat out lie, as Angelina Love and Velvet Sky fought Madison Rayne and Sarita (the former Dark Angel and current WWE agent Sarah Stock) all the way back in November of 2010. That's a full seven years before Sasha and Alexa had their match by my count. That's not on Sasha or Alexa and they should be applauded for also doing what they did, but let's not act like WWE did something no one else did. That's merely just another piece of revisionist history they use to try and make themselves look like some progressive leader of change.

And yes, you do refuse to do business with SA until they've reformed, especially since they aren't close to reforming. This is the same country that apologized for WWE showing a video on the last show that featured a female wrestler period. This is the same country that arrested many of the women activists who called for the driving ban on women to end just weeks before SA lifted it, and kept them imprisoned. Hell as we speak, activist Israa al-Ghomgham is imprisoned right now just for fighting for equal rights and is expected to be sentenced to death by beheading, all while not having a lawyer for the first 32 months of her detention. FOR FIGHTING FOR EQUAL RIGHTS! I don't want to hear this bullshit about baby steps and WWE influencing change, especially since the only reason WWE is doing shows there is because they're piling in cash. If that wasn't happening WWE would not be doing these shows. They don't care about being progressive or making change; it's the money, and this Evolution PPV (which, for something that's supposed to be about evolving, as it stands right now is being built around two matches featuring stars from ten years ago and a match with two special attractions) is in many ways a branding opportunity to take heat off it. Don't be fooled. The WWE is well within their right to do both and there will definitely be some good to come out of it at least from the Evolution show. But anyone who tries to come in here and say they're causing change is full of it. They're in it for the money. If that wasn't the case, they would've pulled this deal after the first show when it became clear where SA stood, something they already should've known to begin with.

Sane vs Baszler is, currently, the only thing I have interest in on this card to date.

I'm guessing the MYC final is between two from Storm, Satomura, Shirai, Ripley, and Purazzo - probably not even Satomura, as she's not an NXT contracted performer. Depending on the combination it might grab me - personally I'm not super into Purazzo or Ripley based on what I've seen, so I guess that means I'm hoping for Storm vs Shirai.

I thought Becky vs Charlotte would make this, but with Show Down done and a rematch with the obvious stip immediately announced for Tuesday it seems kind of unlikely. Equally, they've not given themselves much time to build to anything else. Maybe they'll do Becky vs Charlotte, No DQ. That would have my interest, too.

Not really interested in either of the 'showcase' matches featuring returning older performers. And presumably there's at least one battle royal to be added to the card so that WWE can hit that '50 women' target they made such a big deal about.

I'm interested in the card, agreed that NXT and MYC will almost certainly provide the best matches but I think there's some potentially interesting stuff in the other matches too. I really enjoyed the women's Rumble this year so I'm curious what they can do. Might actually sit and watch this from end to end, we'll see.

Amusing how we're three weeks out, and they've barely built this show. Talk of women's tag titles and if it happens, it will be rushed onto the card.. if not, I don't know what Sasha and Bayley even do at that point.. which is a shame imo. Thought i'd be into Ronda/Nikki but i haven't cared for making Ronda almost normal the past few months... so that's less exciting for me. As for Trish/Alexa, its not gonna be very good but I love Trish and they see Alexa as a star so it fits.

I read from Dave Meltzer that it seems like the original announcement of Alexa Bliss vs. Trish Stratus in a singles match was done just to garner attention and ticket sales, and that the plan was to make the tag team match all along. A bait and switch is a crappy move on their part, in my opinion. The show's intended main draw seems to be Ronda Rousey, but they couldn't announce in which match she would be since they still had to pull off the Bellas heel turn.

I had high hopes about this show but my interest has considerably waned given that they're barely promoting this show. Since I watch the abridged version of Raw on Hulu, I don't know if they have had more segments on the show talking about the Evolution show, but this week's Raw seemed to be all about Crown Jewel. Guess that Saudi Arabian money overshadows a historic event.

this week's Raw seemed to be all about Crown Jewel. Guess that Saudi Arabian money overshadows a historic event.

Which, unfortunately, ties into the being 'WWE Sorry We Can't Take You To Saudi Arabia' rather than 'WWE Evolution'.

It seems like the MMA Four Horsewomen are all set to be in attendance, with Ronda and Shayna defending their belts and Jessamyn and Marina scheduled for something NXT related. I wonder if they use this to spin into those four against the NXT Four Horsewomen at Survivor Series, which has been rumoured for so long - hopefully Sasha's injury and Bayley's non-entity card position doesn't nix that if it is the plan. It also ends up putting champion vs champion in the match, given that Ronda will surely retain and regardless of who wins from Charlotte and Becky you get one of them as champ.

Of course, that throws the alignments of Charlotte and Becky out the window, but you could always address that in some way earlier on in the night.

I had high hopes about this show but my interest has considerably waned given that they're barely promoting this show. Since I watch the abridged version of Raw on Hulu, I don't know if they have had more segments on the show talking about the Evolution show, but this week's Raw seemed to be all about Crown Jewel. Guess that Saudi Arabian money overshadows a historic event.

I'm not sure that's a completely fair criticism. They had the two segments creating the tag match and setting up the Women's Title. Those are the two matches from Raw for the PPV. But on top of that they had Nia vs Ember and a mixed tag. That's three matches a segments and an angle. Compare that to just a few years ago where they'd get one match OR segment per show.

The Mixed Tag was just to hype Mixed Match Challenge, right? It was also the fourth, maybe fifth, show in a row where some combination of Bayley/Balor vs Mahal/Alicia has happened.

If their Smackdown match from this week is anything to go on, Becky and Charlotte are working up to something really special at this. I don't like Last Person Standing Matches at all, but these two might really deliver.

The women are getting a bunch of time, but when it comes to actually promoting the show they can only promote the matches that they have. That's two from Raw.

Nia vs Ember serves as a commercial for the show as well, and while I don't remember perfectly I'd imagine they must have promoted it during the mixed tag.

It's not getting as much time per show because there's less to promote. That and the big story this week was the DX reunion. It's probably an indictment of the decades of treatment of the women on their roster, but in terms of star power, Trish and Lita aren't DX.

I'm not sure that's a completely fair criticism. They had the two segments creating the tag match and setting up the Women's Title. Those are the two matches from Raw for the PPV. But on top of that they had Nia vs Ember and a mixed tag. That's three matches a segments and an angle. Compare that to just a few years ago where they'd get one match OR segment per show.

My original comment stemmed from seeing a lot more attention given to the other shows (first Super Showdown, now Crown Jewel). For Super Showdown I could justify it because the show would be happening before Evolution. But seeing all the segments dedicated to Crown Jewel matches which happens after Evolution was a bit of a let-down to see. They originally hyped the hell out Evolution as this huge, historic event, and to me it just doesn't feel like it anymore.

Also, as I mentioned, I watch the Hulu version of the show which cuts a lot of stuff from the show to squeeze it into an hour and 30 minutes. They only showed one segment for the Trish/Lita vs. Bliss/James, and the Bellas turn on Rousey, and I don't remember seeing any promo segments for the show. Compare that to all the segments for Crown Jewel (DX reunion, Battle Royal, Paul Heyman hyping Lesnar's match, multiple mentions of the World Cup thing).

I do see the entirety of Smackdown, but even they had the same imbalance. Outside of the match between Charlotte and Becky and the subsequent Last Woman Standing announcement by Paige, there wasn't anything else related to Evolution. In comparison, the rest of the show had two World Cup matches for Crown Jewel and the Miz TV segment hyping up the Crown Jewel title match between AJ and Bryan.

It just seems like there's no focus on Evolution at all, which is what bums me out about the whole thing. I'm still looking forward to the event, in any case.

But the thing is, they can only promote what they have. I suppose they could air commercials for it all show, but there are six matches announced, only four of them have the competitors officially announced and one is an NXT Title match.

So the amount of time they've been giving these shows appears more or less proportional to the what's booked from each show (keeping in mind that even though a lot of the male talent aren't on the show yet, they aren't going to be held off TV).

It would be one thing if they had a bunch of matches announced for Evolution and they were ignoring putting any build behind them in favour of another show, but that's just not happening.

For the record, I completely forgot what the main event of Crown Jewel was and originally had something typed about how Braun and Roman have nothing on the card yet.

EDIT: Also, unless they make some announcements coming up soon, Evolution is going to be like December to Dismember. We're going to to go in with a few matches announced, and a bunch of unannounced filler.

But they could build up more matches. They could build up give the Iconics,. Bayley, Natalya, Carmella, Riot Squad, etc something to do besides the battle royal. There could be build up for a cross branded tag match between the Iconics and two faces from Raw. Instead we get filler matches such as Roode and Gable Vs. The Ascention, The Mixed Tag challenge rematch etc. There's 3 hours of Raw so there's plenty of time to build up other stuff.

Let's not tip toe around what is now becoming obvious. Evolution at first seemed like a historic event done in good faith. Now, it's just a red herring to deflect away from the fact that the WWE sold themselves to the Saudis again where women aren't allowed to compete. Evolution wasn't about making history, it was a consolation prize for the women.

But the thing is, they can only promote what they have. I suppose they could air commercials for it all show, but there are six matches announced, only four of them have the competitors officially announced and one is an NXT Title match.

That's kind of my gripe with the whole thing. Why haven't they built up more matches at this point? They've had time and they have plenty of talent that aren't doing much. I just don't understand why they couldn't have built at least one or two more matches with some of the ladies, even if they were filler. They could have at least pulled back on one segment they used for Crown Jewel for a week or two and give it to add something for Evolution.

The more I talk about it, the more I'm thinking this is all just a case of having way too many events in such a short order, and Evolution is getting the short end of the stick by getting sandwiched in between two huge money-making events for the company.

The more I talk about it, the more I'm thinking this is all just a case of having way too many events in such a short order, and Evolution is getting the short end of the stick by getting sandwiched in between two huge money-making events for the company.

I think that this is definitely the case, which is why I'd like to see them plan for these events to fit in to their regular show calendar.

This likely would have been much smoother if Super Show-Down had taken the place of Hell in a Cell. Having three shows in four weeks is just too much. On top of that, they're going to have to build the entire Survivor Series card in only 16 days!

An all-women's PPV is a nice sentiment that I think they took on earnestly -- they aren't going to spend the money necessary to run a live PPV just to "throw people off their scent" -- but when you have to fit the amount of star power in that DX and BoD brings, plus still tell your top level "full time" stories, plus promote a PPV with a segment of the roster that they were never going to give a ton more TV time to (ratings still matter and a lot of those girls frankly aren't needle movers) they're just overextended.

I'm really hoping that next year we see them use these shows in place of traditional PPV events on their calendar. However, I have this feeling that between the potential revenue, and the fact that they feel that they have to keep putting out live "big time" wrestling content on the Network in order to maintain and grow it, things are just going to get worse next year. We might be looking at a major show per week or every second week in 2019.

If that's the case I wonder if the knock-on effect is lower ratings for the TV shows. Only so many hours in the week to watch wrestling after all, and if you've already paid for the big events and they're promoted as a big deal....

I think the show itself will be really good, even though the build-up has really dampened my excitement as time goes on. The card is turning out to be really solid. I don't care much about the returning legends or the battle royal to be honest, but all the title matches and the finals of the Mae Young Classic should be top notch. There's going to be a lot of really good wrestling on the show.

I'm really hoping that the Becky vs. Charlotte match goes on as the main event, because both of those ladies will kill it in that spot. Chances are that the main event slot will be given to Rousey vs. Nikki Bella, though, just because of the name value there. I would understand why, but would much rather prefer the Smackdown Women's Championship be on display since that's pretty much the most interesting feud happening in all of the WWE right now.

The smackdown women's championship honestly should be the main event, especially since it's going to be another first. But yeah, you probably are right about Ronda vs. Nikki Bella being the main event. I wouldn't be surprised to see Mickie and Bliss Vs. Trish and Lita as the main event, either.

It actually dawned on me that as did get a women's Hell in a cell match this year. I think Becky vs. Charlotte would have been perfect inside a cell had Hell in a Cell been a October PPV this year.

The smackdown women's championship honestly should be the main event, especially since it's going to be another first. But yeah, you probably are right about Ronda vs. Nikki Bella being the main event. I wouldn't be surprised to see Mickie and Bliss Vs. Trish and Lita as the main event, either.

I mean, you're right, it should be the main, because it's the only well built match with time put into it to support that position on the card. But I doubt there's anyway WWE looks past Rousey for that spot, and to be quite honest I'll enjoy her ripping Nikki's arm out of the socket and beating her around the ring with it.

Does anybody else find it very jarring that WWE are painting the Bellas as the duo that kickstarted the revolution, in a way? Like, the only way they kickstarted this is because it started as a backlash against everything they, and their contemporaries, were about, right?

Years from now, I'm sure the company will paint Evolution as something much bigger than it is and how they were on the forefront of women's wrestling or some PR garbage like that. I find it easier to ignore the WWE's revisionist spins on most - if not all - things they mention about the past. Makes my wrestling viewing less stressful that way.

Looks like Alexa Bliss got injured recently and was replaced by Alicia Fox in her tag match on the show. That's sucks for her, since this was one of the matches the company was really pushing and she's one of the top women in the company regardless of how people perceive her in-ring skills.

I know I'm like a broken record but it's a such a damn shame that the promotion on this show has been brutal. This week's Smackdown was essentially the last opportunity for them to hype the event up and we ended up with just a handful of mentions and two segments: a pre-recorded segment between Becky and Charlotte (although it was really well done) and a tag team match to remind people of the battle royal that not even the participants seem to be thrilled to be a part of. Admittedly, most matches are on the Raw side of things. But I'm still feeling like they could have done so much more to hype things up a little.

It really is a little strange that the only non-Battle Royal match on Smackdown is Charlotte Vs Becky. Raw's got, what, three matches?

I'm actually really happy to see Alicia Fox get a spot to shine. I wish they'd find more opportunities for her to shine, I always thought she was quite underrated in terms of ability. I think she'd be someone who could show a good amount in ring against the new wave of NXT women.